(Sharecast News) - Firering Strategic Minerals has officially initiated its 3,000-metre reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign at the Atex lithium project in Côte d'Ivoire, it announced on Monday, marking a significant step forward for its flagship project.
The AIM-traded firm said the drilling programme was set to target identified lithium-bearing pegmatite zones, representing the pivotal next phase for the Atex project.
It was designed to build on the noteworthy discoveries made during the diamond drilling (DD) campaign carried out in 2022 near Spodumene Hill.
Additionally, new drilling targets identified through the 2023 auger drilling campaign would be explored.
The company said the drilling operations were projected to conclude within a span of four to six weeks, with Firering ]pledging to release details regarding the pegmatite intercepts as they became available in the coming weeks.
"This next phase of drilling at Atex will be crucial to Firering as we look to rapidly advance the project and build on the highly encouraging results from the diamond drilling campaign undertaken in the fourth quarter of 2022, which demonstrated the first significant intercepts from Atex, including an intercept of 64 metres at 1.24% lithium oxide near Spodumene Hill, which is truly exceptional and amongst the best intercepts reported at that time by our global peers," said chief executive officer Yuval Cohen.
"Although the reverse circulation programme is expected to conclude in four to six weeks, we will update the market as intercepts are made available over the coming weeks."
Cohen said samples would be sent to Intertek for assaying, with the first assay results expected during the first quarter of the year.
"This is an exciting phase for our flagship Atex Project and am looking forward to announcing the assay results in due course."
At 1425 GMT, shares in Firering Strategic Minerals were up 4.04% at 4.73p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
Firering Strat (FRG)